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        <section id="article-section-1"><p dir="ltr">In 2015, median household income increased for the first time in nearly a decade. On its face, that alone is progress. Coupled with decreases in poverty, it may seem like significant progress. But those numbers may obscure the fact that, in many ways, Americans are still struggling to catch up after the massive losses of the recession and decades of wage stagnation.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Census bureau released its most recent <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.html" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'0',r'499793'">data</a> on income and poverty in the U.S. The report showed that median household income climbed to $56,516, a 5.2 percent increase from 2014 and one of the largest one-year increases ever. During the same time period about 3.5 million people moved above the poverty threshold, in part due to job and income gains and (at least based on the supplemental measure) non-cash assistance from things such as housing vouchers or food stamps. While growth of median income is promising news following several years of decline, median incomes remain 1.6 percent lower than they were in 2007 and lower still than the 1999 median-household-income peak of over $57,000 in time-adjusted dollars. For blacks the gulf between 2007 and recent years is even wider, at around 5 percent less than that pre-recession high. The overall poverty rate is 13.5 percent, a shockingly high number compared to what it’s been during other periods of economic growth, when it’s been dropped to closer to 12 percent.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector1" targeting-pos="boxinjector1" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [1600, 520], [1000, 350], [1600, 500], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-2"><hr><p><big><b>Median Household Income, 1967 to 2015</b></big></p><figure style="max-width: 630.0px;"><a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.pdf" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'1',r'499793'"><picture style="display: block; position:relative; width:100%; height:0; overflow:hidden; padding-bottom:49.0476190476%;"><img alt="" data-srcset="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2016/09/Screen_Shot_2016_09_13_at_12.03.11_PM/b7dfad85a.png" class="lazyload" style="position:absolute; width:100%; height:100%; top:0; left:0; border:0;"></picture></a>

<figcaption class="caption">The line break around 2013 notes a shift in the Bureau’s income survey questions. (Census)</figcaption></figure><hr><p>According to Trudi Renwick, the chief of the poverty statistics branch at the Census Bureau,  much of the upward progress in the report was likely due to increases in employment, specifically full-time year-round workers, a group that increased by 3.3 million workers in the last year. That too—along with an unemployment rate that has dropped to <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'2',r'499793'">4.9 percent</a>—may seem like reason to celebrate, but those celebrations may be premature.</p><hr><p><b><bold>Full-Time Workers, 1967 to 2015</bold></b></p><figure style="max-width: 630.0px;"><a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.pdf" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'3',r'499793'"><picture style="display: block; position:relative; width:100%; height:0; overflow:hidden; padding-bottom:50.0%;"><img alt="" data-srcset="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2016/09/Screen_Shot_2016_09_13_at_12.00.27_PM/3d6ef322b.png" class="lazyload" style="position:absolute; width:100%; height:100%; top:0; left:0; border:0;"></picture></a>

<figcaption class="caption">The line break around 2013 notes a shift in the Bureau’s income survey questions. (Census)</figcaption></figure><hr><p>“A focus on the these very good 2014-15 annual changes misses the big picture: The poor and the median full-time worker and household were better off at the end of Bill Clinton’s Administration than they are today,” Sheldon Danziger, the president of the Russell Sage Foundation, said in a statement. Labor force participation remains low, and blacks, Hispanics, and those without college educations still <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'4',r'499793'">struggle</a> to find work. The report showed little progress when it comes to closing the significant inequality gap, or the earnings gap between the sexes, that so many are concerned about. Certainly, the report showed evidence that things are moving in a positive direction, but many American working families are still miles away from anything that could be described as prosperity.</p></section>
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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">How Donald Trump Exploited Charity for Personal Gain</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/conor-friedersdorf/" itemprop="url" title="Conor Friedersdorf"><span itemprop="name">Conor Friedersdorf</span></a></span></li>


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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2016-09-13T13:32:28" />
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        <p class="dek">The billionaire used the Donald J. Trump Foundation to mislead the public—and to funnel cash to an elected prosecutor poised to investigate Trump University.</p>

        <div class="excerpt">
            <p><span style="line-height: 1.66667;">Last May, Donald Trump evaded questions about his charitable giving in a way that couldn’t help but raise the suspicions of most everyone privy to the exchange. Trump, of course, cultivates an image of extravagant generosity. “You said you’re an ardent philanthropist. You said you’ve given more than $100 million to charity over the last five years,” <em>The</em> </span><em style="line-height: 1.66667;">Washington Post’s</em><span style="line-height: 1.66667;"> Drew Hartwell challenged the billionaire celebrity during an </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/politics/trump-archive/docs/donald-trump-interview-may-13-2016-with-oharrow-harwell-boburg.pdf" style="line-height: 1.66667;">interview</a><span style="line-height: 1.66667;">. “But when you look into the money that was given to the Donald J. Trump Foundation,” he added, “you haven’t donated any actual money.”</span></p>

<p>This election, The Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has generated a lot of negative press for the Democratic nominee, who has faced criticism for the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=17&amp;ved=0ahUKEwj1nr3Lg4zPAhUK02MKHU35Bz0Q1ScIkgEwEA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fpolitics%2Fforeign-governments-gave-millions-to-foundation-while-clinton-was-at-state-dept%2F2015%2F02%2F25%2F31937c1e-bc3f-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html&amp;usg=AFQjCNG7EnpzYiyURVNkhawLgZkQcEXeBA&amp;sig2=UMfp7ujh17SpLmZeJ8Azbw&amp;bvm=bv.132479545,d.amc">large donations</a> it accepted from foreign governments while she was secretary of state. This created obvious conflicts of interest. And the Clintons use their foundation to employ loyalists in their orbit during their time outside of government. On the upside, their foundation’s initiatives have helped many in the U.S., where it works to improve physical education and nutrition for school children, and millions abroad, where it provides cheaper <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/24/politics/clinton-foundation-explainer/">AIDS medication and better seeds</a> to the poor. <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&amp;orgid=16680">Charity Navigator</a> and Charity Watch <a href="https://www.charitywatch.org/articles-and-media/bill-hillary-chelsea-clinton-foundation/478">give it good overall marks</a>.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">How Breitbart Conquered the Media</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/ta-nehisi-coates/" itemprop="url" title="Ta-Nehisi Coates"><span itemprop="name">Ta-Nehisi Coates</span></a></span></li>


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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2016-09-12T11:18:46" />
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        <p class="dek">Political reporters were taken aback by Hillary Clinton’s charge that half of Trump’s supporters are prejudiced. Few bothered to investigate the claim itself.</p>

        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>In July of 2010, journalist and provocateur Andrew Breitbart posted a video excerpt of remarks on his site purporting to expose “evidence of racism coming from a federal appointee and NAACP award recipient.” This was an explosive charge. The Tea Party was ascendant then and racial grievance was one of its animating features.</p>

<p>In Obama’s America, “the white kids now get beat up, with the black kids cheering,” <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/16/rush-limbaugh-obamas-amer_n_288371.html">explained Rush Limbaugh</a>. “And of course everybody says the white kid deserved it—he was born a racist, he’s white.” Iowa Republican Representative Steve King <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2010/06/steve-king-obama-favors-the-black-person-027564">charged that Obama</a> has a “default mechanism” that “favors the black person.” Tea Party supporters <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/tea-party-racist_n_4158262.html">arrived at rallies charging</a> Obama with endorsing “white slavery.” Now Breitbart purported to have in his hands proof that would prove that it was the NAACP and its allies in the White House who were the real racists.</p>


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                <figcaption class="credit">Justin Merriman</figcaption>

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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Why Democrats in Western Pennsylvania Are Voting Trump</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/salena-zito/" itemprop="url" title="Salena Zito"><span itemprop="name">Salena Zito</span></a></span></li>


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        <p class="dek">At a voter-registration event in Washington County, Democrats in the energy industry say the 2016 election is about preserving their way of life.</p>

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            <p>CHARLEROI, Pa.—Angela LeJohn is 49, has worked at a local energy company for nine years, and loves it. A registered Democrat, she never once voted for a Republican and never expected to entertain such a thought—not even in a local election—until this year.</p>

<p>“The short of it is that I am looking at this election through self-preservation,” she explained. “I love my job, I love that I only live three miles from work, I love that who I work for contributes to a stable life, and I love that my community is holding on because of the trickle effect Lee Supply Company’s impact has on the region.”</p>

<p>LeJohn will vote for Donald Trump for president and for incumbent U.S. Senator Pat Toomey in November, she candidly admits, not because she loves either Republican candidate but because “they have my back.”</p>


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                <figcaption class="credit">Matt Furie </figcaption>

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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">It's Not Easy Being Meme</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/adam-serwer/" itemprop="url" title="Adam Serwer"><span itemprop="name">Adam Serwer</span></a></span></li>


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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2016-09-13T18:08:36" />
    <meta itemprop="dateModified" content="2016-09-14T01:19:08" />

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        <p class="dek">How artist Matt Furie feels about his creation, Pepe the Frog, becoming a favored symbol of white nationalists and Trump supporters.</p>

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            <p dir="ltr">Tuesday morning Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/post/donald-trump-pepe-the-frog-and-white-supremacists-an-explainer/">denounced a cartoon frog named Pepe</a>.</p>

<p dir="ltr">For most of his lifespan as a meme on the internet, Pepe the Frog was a<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/what-is-the-market-value-of-a-rare-pepe?utm_term=.mx1lXBoeJ#.tcYrVM2b5"> benign, if sometimes bawdy figure</a> beloved <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/feels-good-man-728">by pop stars and teenagers alike</a>. He was created by artist Matt Furie for a strip he started in<a href="http://www.fantagraphics.com/boysclub/"> 2005 called <em>Boy’s Club</em></a>, which Furie describes as a comic about life in your early 20s.  </p>

<p dir="ltr">But reporters today are more likely to encounter <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/26/how-pepe-the-frog-became-a-nazi-trump-supporter-and-alt-right-symbol.html">Pepe’s smug visage in his latest incarnation</a>, as <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/all-in/2016-07-07">MSNBC’s Chris Hayes put it</a>, people with “Nazi frog avatars” who are “tweeting about the Jews.”</p>

<p dir="ltr">After Hillary Clinton placed half of her rival Donald Trump’s supporters in a “basket of deplorables,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out modified images of the poster for the action movie <em>The Expendables</em> with prominent Trump supporters’ faces photoshopped onto those of the action stars. The image, which introduces the group as <em>The Deplorables</em>, includes Pepe in a Donald Trump wig. Reporters now often describe Pepe as a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-adviser-son-post-image-trump-s-deplorables-featuring-white-n646431">“white-nationalist symbol”</a> rather than the “chill” and “good natured” frog he was intended to be.  </p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">The World Is a Thriving Slaughterhouse</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/roger-rosenblatt/" itemprop="url" title="Roger Rosenblatt"><span itemprop="name">Roger Rosenblatt</span></a></span></li>


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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2016-09-13T06:00:00" />
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        <p class="dek">Sifting through decades of testimony of people caught up in the horrors of violent zealotry, a writer grapples with what hasn’t changed in our new world of terror.</p>

        <div class="excerpt">
            <p class="dropcap">H<span class="smallcaps">ere, lying in </span>a stained carton, are notes on a refugee camp in Tanzania, where surviving Tutsis and their Hutu enemies lived side by side in blue tarp tents. It is 1994. The notes record that there are people everywhere, milling and moving in short parades on the main path in the camp, hastily constructed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Women wear colorful cloths, <i>khangas</i>, and carry yellow plastic containers of water on their heads. Children and old men push up against one another, as if at a bargain sale. They hold portable radios to their ears. A man in a brown rain hat drags a reluctant goat by a rope. White smoke mixes with the smells of fresh earth and excrement. At an outdoor butcher shop, a cow’s bloodied horn lies beside the animal’s astonished head. I greet a group of young Hutus in French. “Did you participate in the killings?,” I ask. “We did nothing,” one says. “Did you see others do the killing?” He says, “We saw nothing.” I ask, “How many Tutsis are left in Rwanda, do you think?” A teenage boy wearing a green baseball cap grins, and slowly draws the side of his index finger across his throat.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">What It Feels Like to Die</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/jennie-dear/" itemprop="url" title="Jennie Dear"><span itemprop="name">Jennie Dear</span></a></span></li>


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        <p class="dek">Science is just beginning to understand the experience of life’s end.</p>

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            <p>“Do you want to know what will happen as your body starts shutting down?”</p>

<p>My mother and I sat across from the hospice nurse in my parents’ Colorado home. It was 2005, and my mother had reached the end of treatments for metastatic breast cancer. A month or two earlier, she’d been able to take the dog for daily walks in the mountains and travel to Australia with my father. Now, she was weak, exhausted from the disease and chemotherapy and pain medication.  </p>

<p>My mother had been the one to decide, with her doctor’s blessing, to stop pursuing the dwindling chemo options, and she had been the one to ask her doctor to call hospice. Still,  we weren’t prepared for the nurse’s question. My mother and I exchanged glances, a little shocked. But what we felt most was a sense of relief.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">There's More to Life Than Being Happy</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/emily-esfahani-smith/" itemprop="url" title="Emily Esfahani Smith"><span itemprop="name">Emily Esfahani Smith</span></a></span></li>


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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2013-01-09T08:06:48" />
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        <p class="dek">Meaning comes from the pursuit of more complex things than happiness</p>

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            <p><i>"It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness."</i></p>

 <p>In September 1942, Viktor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp with his wife and parents. Three years later, when his camp was liberated, most of his family, including his pregnant wife, had perished -- but he, prisoner number 119104, had lived. In his bestselling 1946 book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X">Man's Search for Meaning</a></em>, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life. When he was a <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Viktor_Frankl.html?id=3AXDwL6HwRAC">high school student</a>, one of his science teachers declared to the class, "Life is nothing more than a combustion process, a process of oxidation." Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then what can be the meaning of life?"</p>


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